Christie to host town hall focused on pension reform in Ocean City next week

TRENTON — The next stop on Gov. Chris Christie's summer town hall series on pension reform: the Ocean City boardwalk.

The Republican governor will visit the Cape May County city next Thursday, Aug. 14, to speak to residents and take questions from the audience.

It's part of Christie's "No Pain, No Gain" tour, which finds him holding town hall meetings across the state this summer to tout his pending plan to further overhaul New Jersey's ailing public-worker pension system.

Christie, a potential 2016 candidate for president, said the state's finances will crumble if more reform isn't implemented. Democrats, though, argue that the governor is reneging on a 2011 law he signed, requiring government employees to pay more for their retirement and health benefits, while the state promised to increase payments to the system after years of shortchanging it.